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My good friend WA2AAX, now a silent key, told of a visit he once made to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. During a lull in operation they let him traver
by HocusLocus 8y ago
My good friend WA2AAX, now a silent key, told of a visit he once made to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. During a lull in operation they let him traverse the catwalk spanning the 'dish' (a spherical mesh 1,000 ft diameter built inside a natural sinkhole) as the moon reached its zenith. Scanning his VHF HT he was able to hear many moonbouncing HAMs and even voice traffic from repeaters in the US. With a standard offset he was even able to make a brief contact with someone on a faraway VHF repeater before the celestial mechanics drifted out of alignment. A 2,000 mile QSO on VHF with a handheld, via the Moon. He considered it his finest Geek moment.
- dredmorbius 8y agoOne of Arecebo's missions was to listen on Soviet and Sino transmissions, or nuke tests, via moon bounced transmissions. (From Steve Blank's "Secret history of Silicon Valley" talk. https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/10023411/steve_blank_silicon_valley_and_innovation.mp3 https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/10023411/steve_bla... )
- matthewmcg 8y agoGreat story! That’s sort of the Ham equivalent of the XKCD with the “real programers use a butterfly”[1] [1]: https://www.xkcd.com/378/ https://www.xkcd.com/378/